Disneyland Everyday

Here I am again, skipping on big plans for a cool post because I'm so tired!  It was a great day we had at the park yesterday.  Finishing off with Cars was cool!  "Disneyland is much better when you get to butt in line." Here's Disney California Adventure at night:

Well, I had big plans for this blog post when I woke up this morning.  Now, after a full day at the park, I'm just going to make a lame post. First, on our way to the park I saw this guy mowing the grass.  That's a big deal since it's January 29! Here's the picture at the entrance of the park.  We take one of these every time we go.  Most of us are in it:

Well, today we finally get to go to the park!  We have been talking about and planning this trip for some 150 days and today is finally the day to actually go on rides and eat the food.  Of course, it was not easy to get here.  We drove 10-12 hours with lots of traffic and the crazy California drivers.  Here are some highlights of the trip: We got up pretty early because we wanted to make sure Patti saw the beach and the ocean: One of the good things about the drive is that, for the most part, everyone drives really fast: Of course, there is a trade off for driving fast: gas prices.  We stopped in Baker for a bit of gas and to use the bathroom.  Patti was trying to text someone that we were in Baker and I said Baker had a special spelling: a-r-m-p-i-t.  Look at the price per gallon! Those are things about the ride that I pay attention to.  The kids, on the other hand, are oblivious to almost everything going on around them because o...

Well, this is the 151st post on this blog!  Today is the day we finally get to leave cold and dreary Utah and head for sunny, warm Southern California!  Since it was just last night that we took these pictures I think you will all remember taking them, but here they are, all in one spot.  These are the pictures of us the night before our trip.  In fact, as you are looking at this blog post we are likely driving along! Here we have mom, dad, Brandon, and Hayk: Here are Lissa, Christian, and crew.  The big sign says, "Diaz Family are headin' to Disneyland!!"  Christian's sign says "I'm only coming to pay for everything." Here is a picture of my family.  We are holding SOME of our snacks and a few Disney stuffed animals as well.

Here are all of the posts from recent days: Backpack, Key Chains, Crap for the Drive, Snack City, More Snacks, One More Snack Post, RideMax, and Road Trip...Again.  That is 8 posts in a row that don't really feature pictures of the family or park.  That's because I'm out of pictures and we still have a few days until we go to Disney!  In fact, we will hit the road tomorrow morning!  Then, we'll all need to be very aggressive with our picture taking so that I can keep this blog going all the way until our next trip!  So, take some time today and clear out your phone of all your old pictures so there's room for hundreds of new pictures and video! Next, you might have noticed that the title of this post is Anaheim Weather.  That's because I wanted to give updates on how the weather will be when we're there.  I have spent some 150 days worrying that the roads might be bad (Utah in January) or that it will be especially rainy while we're at the park....

The drive all the way down to Disneyland is kinda long, but not too bad.  There's plenty to see along the way.  The part that is the worst for me is between Mesquite and Las Vegas-it's not too exciting and the cell service is hit and miss.  Here is a map of what our planned stops will be.  Now, I know that things happen on a long drive that would push us off the plan, and that's okay, but I like to have a plan! I suspect we'll stop in Beaver for a drink and a stretch, and then stop again in St. George for lunch and gas.  Then, we'll stop again in Barstow, before going on to Anaheim.  The Barstow stop is to get gas because I don't want to be caught in SoCal traffic with very little gas.  I would like to be able to drive from Orem directly to St. George and skip the Beaver stop, but we have too many bladders, and many of those are very small! Our tradition in the past is to hit Golden Corral in St. George on our way home, so I'll need to figure out w...

Ridemax is some sophisticated software that uses an algorithm to maximize ride time (hence the name) and minimize wait times.  It's one short-coming is that it doesn't necessary minimize walking.  So, if we follow the Ridemax plan (and I think we should), be ready to walk a bit! First, you can make a custom plan name and you input the times you will be at the park: Next, you select the rides you want to ride, and the number of times you want to ride them.  If you make a plan that's "too loaded" the software will tell you and you'll have to go back and make new selections. You can also choose your touring speed, also known as how fast you can move a group of 20+ people around the park.  While you're at it, you can also add in breaks and tell the software where and when you'd like a break.  In this plan I said we wanted to eat at Cafe Orleans at 1pm: Once you put all of that into the software you get the results.  The output tells ...